Tenryukyo ware is pottery made in Tenryukyo, Tatsue, Iida City, Nagano Prefecture. Near the end of the Edo period, around 1624, a potter from Seto was invited to the area to make oniwa ware for the Iida Domain. It is said that this was the start of the current Tenryukyo ware.
When the domain ceased to support the kiln during the Meiji Restoration, the kiln was turned private. After a very long time, Shinoda Tokusai (Shiro) and Hagimoto Tosai (Teijiro) started creating pottery using the techniques of Yahata Kosho, a seal carving master from Suwa, in 1903. They fired the pottery with the seals carved into them in Obayashi, and this type of pottery became very popular.
Miwa Rakugado was founded in 1919. They built a kiln in Tenryukyo in 1922, and currently, Miwa Toshiko, the third-generation head, continues to carry on the tradition.
